Ron Weasley X Reader 1 | A Wild World, A Wad of Wizards, And A Wonderful Weasley

Chapter 18

"We can't just let them go," Hermione stated angrily as she remained in her seat across the table from me, the dimly lit fireplace making it only the slightest bit easier to see her.

I shrugged, not nearly as against the idea as she was—in fact, I was actually hoping to get a glimpse of this duel. "We can't really stop them, either."

The two of us stayed up for the next few hours in the common room, chatting until we'd fallen into a small silence, in which Hermione had picked up a book and begun to read. I was merely glancing around the room, idly playing with my fingers until I'd spared a glance down at my—or Dudley's, rather—watch.

"Almost half past eleven now," I informed her with a small hum. Hermione almost didn't say anything in response, though when she did, her voice was filled with concern, "You don't think they'll really do it, do you?"

While I did want to see what a wizarding duel would be like, I could also feel my body filling with a sort of dread and worry. Harry could get hurt. That was the last thing I'd ever want.

"Knowing him," I sighed, wishing it were any other way as a small part of me cheered in excitement, "Probably."

Again, for a moment, we fell into silence. Then, we could hear the sound of footsteps coming down the stairs.

Ron and Harry both appeared from the staircase that led up to the boys' dormitories, yet Hermione waited until they'd almost reached the portrait hole to flick on a lamp and confront them. "I can't believe you're going to do this, Harry," she frowned.

"You," Ron huffed, his furious eyes locked onto Hermione, "Go back to bed!" Hermione responded with a similar level of anger in her voice, "I almost told your brother. Percy—he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."

Harry, unlike Ron, seemed to have noticed me right away, and by the look on his face, I felt he might've been a bit disappointed. Finally, he stopped staring at me with such a look on his face and turned to his redheaded friend. "Come on," he said, ignoring Hermione entirely as he turned and climbed out of the portrait hole.

Hermione immediately shot out of her chair to follow them, though I lagged behind a bit, feeling much less eager to witness this duel. Now, if Harry died, he'd die upset with me. What a jerk. He could've at least died happy.

"Don't you care about Gryffindor," Hermione rambled, not sounding very concerned for the pair of them, "Do you only care about yourselves, I don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."

"Go away," Ron spat, entirely unfazed. "Alright," she replied, still sounding quite angry, "but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so—"

Hermione stopped her ramble when she turned to find that the Fat Lady was gone. She must've been on a night time stroll, which—unfortunately—left her without a way back inside.

"Now what am I going to do," she asked loudly, sounding like she was on her wit's end.

"That's your problem," Ron answered, "We've got to go, we're going to be late." And just like that, him and Harry set off.

"You could come with us," I suggested to her. She turned to look at me with her eyebrows pinched together, "'Us?' Oh, don't tell me you're going with them!" "Well, I'm not going to stay here staring at the wall all night," I reasoned right before I chased after the two boys, meeting them at the end of the corridor.

Harry glanced over me quickly, "You're not coming." "Yeah I am," I argued, and only a second later, we were joined by Hermione. "No, yo-"

I'd never been more grateful for Hermione, because she accidentally cut Harry off with a decision of her own, "I'm coming with you." Ron immediately shot this down, "You are not."

"D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all four of us I'll tell him the truth, that (y/n) and I were trying to stop you, and you can all back me up," she reasoned, and I reckoned she might've been even worse off in social situations than I was.

Ron, expectedly, was only more infuriated by this, "You've got some nerve-" "Shut up, both of you," Harry cut him off with a whisper-shout, "I heard something."

Now that he mentioned it, there was definitely something snuffling somewhere nearby.

Ron squinted through the dark as he breathed out a quiet suggestion, "Mrs. Norris?" "No," I shook my head as I caught sight of a certain boy, curled up and fast asleep on the floor, "Neville."

He jerked awake the moment I spoke his name, and his eyes lit up at the sight of us. "Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours; I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed!"

"Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig Snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere."

Harry quickly switched the subject, "How's your arm?" "Fine," Neville answered as he showed it to us all, "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."

"Wow, Neville, that's really wonderful," I grinned in awe at the fact that this woman was capable of something so amazing. Really, I couldn't imagine that realistically; it actually took me a minute to remember that this was a school of magic.

"Well, we'll see you later, Neville, we've got to be somewhere-" "Don't leave me," Neville cut Harry off as he scrambled to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already!"

Ron glanced at his watch before glaring at Hermione, Neville, and I, "If any of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of Bogies Quirrell told us about and used it on you."

Hermione opened her mouth and I could tell just by the look on her face that she was about to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of Bogies, so I elbowed her before she got the chance. If Ron intended on using it on any one of us, I didn't plan on helping him.

"Ouch-" "Come on," Harry beckoned is all along the hall, "We'd better get moving if we want to make it on time."

So we got moving along a path lit solely by the moonlight that managed to slip through the high windows.

Making it to the trophy room went rather smoother than I expected, but I was quite grateful that we got there without anything else happening. We were even a bit early, which was rather unexpected.

"It's a wonder we haven't run into Filch yet," I whispered while glancing around the room. It made me figure that sneaking around the castle at night wouldn't be very difficult at all—that is, if I ever even felt the need to do that.

"It's really not that surprising, though it is rather disappointing," Hermione stated as she took a small step closer to me.

Ron sent a small glare her way at her words, though he merely turned back to Harry without saying anything. I was surprised. He didn't seem capable of holding back an argument.

Word Count: 1224